There is a scientific career that exceeds (and even precedes in many cases) that of the space race, that of AI and the one linked to genetics. It’s about what involves The finding of extraterrestrial life. And a telescope could allow us to make a huge leap in this race.
This is the extremely large telescope (ELT), currently under construction in northern Chile, which will be able to provide a vision of the Milky Way better than any anterior terrestrial telescope. The ELT primary mirro set will have an effective diameter of 39 meters. Will capture more light than previous telescopes and It will provide us with 16 times clear than those of the Hubble Space Telescope. Its entry into operation is scheduled for 2028, and the results could begin arriving overnight, as demonstrated by a recent study published in Arxiv.
One of the most powerful functions of the ELT will be the capture of the faint spectra of exoplanet atmospheres. This usually happens when a planet passes in front of its star from our privileged position. A small star portion crosses the atmosphere of a planet to reach us, and through the analysis of the absorption spectra we can determine the molecules present in the planet’s atmosphere, such as water, carbon dioxide and oxygen. The James Webb (JWST) space telescope has compiled data on the atmospheres of several exoplanets, for example.
However, sometimes the traffic data we can collect are not conclusive. For example, when the JWST searched atmospheres on the planets of the Trappist-1 system, it seemed that the Byc planets lacked air, But the data is not intense enough to rule out the presence of atmospheres. There could be thin atmospheres with spectral lines too faint for the JWST to observe them. The greatest sensitivity of Elt should solve this issue.
What is even more exciting is that Elt should be able to collect spectra not only exoplanets that travel its starbut also of exoplanets that are not in transit by reflected star light.
To determine the power of the ELT, this new study simulated results for several scenarios. They focused on planets that orbit close red dwarf stars, since these are the most common types of exoplanets, and analyzed four test cases: a non -industrialized land rich in water and photosyntizing plants; an early archaic land where life just begins to prosper; A world similar to the land where oceans have evaporated, similar to Mars or Venus; and a prebiotic land capable of hosting life, but where there is not. By way of comparison, the team also considered worlds in the size of Neptune, which should have significantly denser atmospheres.
The idea was to check if the ELT could distinguish between the different worlds similar to the Earth and, more importantly, if the data could induce us to a false positive or negative. That is, if a lifeless world would seem to have life or a world alive it would seem sterile. Based on their simulations, the authors, led by Victoria Meadows, from the University of Washington, discovered that we should be able to establish clear and precise distinctions for nearby star systems. In the case of the closest star, Next Centauri, we could detect life in a world similar to the Earth with only ten hours of observation. For a world of the size of Neptune, the ELT could capture planetary spectra in approximately one hour.
So, if there is life in a nearby star system, the ELT should be able to detect it. The answer to which perhaps is the most important question in the history of humanity could be found in just a few years.